Find webpages, articles, images & toolboxes for doing civic design here.
Civic Design Library
with case studies of civic design projects from around the world
Readings on Civic Design



Civic Design Resource List, 2021
Design Method Toolboxes
For Co-Design, Participatory Design, Service Design, and other variations of more democratic design work
The Citizens’ Handbook, https://www.citizenshandbook.org/about.html
Community Planning Toolkit, https://www.communityplanningtoolkit.org
Participate in Design (Singapore) Methods Toolbox, http://participateindesign.org/approach/tools
Participatory Methods Toolkit: A Practitioner’s Manual, by Nikki Slocum, United Nations University http://social-labs.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PMT.pdf
Nesta: Innovation Policy Toolkit, https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/tradecraftinnodiplomats_innovationpolicytoolkit.pdf
This is Service Design Doing Toolkit, https://www.thisisservicedesigndoing.com/methods
Other Classes
That teach on similar themes & projects
Community Participation & Design at UC Davis, taught by David de la Peña. It focuses on how designers and planners can use participatory design to improve how they engage with the public.
More Academic Articles & Policy Reports
Design as Democracy: Techniques for Collective Creativity (2017), Island Press. ed. de la Pena, D., Allen, D. J., Hester, R.T., Hou, J., Lawson, L.J., and McNally, M.J.
Dream Play Build: Hands-On Community Engagement for Enduring Spaces and Places (2022), Island Press. Rojas, J. and Kamp, J.
“50 Years Since Arnstein’s Ladder” Special Issue, 2019. Journal of the American Planning Association. Volume 85.
Blue et al. “Justice as Parity of Participation.” Enhancing Arnstein’s Ladder Through Fraser’s Justice Framework
Lyles, W. and White, S.S. “Who Cares? Arnstein’s Ladder, the Emotional Paradox of Public Engagement, and (Re)imagining Planning as Caring”
Karner, et al. “The View From the Top of Arnstein’s Ladder Participatory Budgeting and the Promise of Community Control”
Rosen, J. and Painter, G. “From Citizen Control to Co-Production: Moving Beyond a Linear Conception of Citizen Participation”
Bason, C. et al., 2013. “Public and Collaborative: Exploring the Intersection of Design, Social Innovation, and Public Policy” E. Manzini & E. Staszowski, eds., New York, New York, USA. Available at: http://nyc.pubcollab.org/files/DESIS_PandC_Book.pdf
Inch, et al., 2019. “People and Planning at Fifty.” Planning Theory & Practice. Volume 20.
Lucy Kimbell, 2015. “Applying Design Approaches to Policy Making: Discovering Policy Lab.” University of Brighton, pp.1–43. Available at: https://researchingdesignforpolicy.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/kimbell_policylab_report.pdf
Teder, M. E., 2019. “Placemaking as co-creation – professional roles and attitudes in practice.” CoDesign International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts. Volume 15.